


That 'I' In Team

by Hollyflash



Series: Team Relic [1]
Category: Pocket Monsters | Pokemon - All Media Types, Pokemon Mystery Dungeon, Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Time & Explorers of Darkness & Explorers of Sky
Genre: Gen, Hero doesn't get a name until the end of part 4 because she wants to hurt me in particular, I'd call this a slowburn friendship but it's more of a speedrun, This concept started as a joke I'm surprised I finished it, character with anxiety
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-07
Updated: 2020-05-28
Packaged: 2021-03-02 19:35:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 14,971
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24052180
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Hollyflash/pseuds/Hollyflash
Summary: More than anything else in the world, Dusk wants to join the Wigglytuff’s guild as an apprentice. When he meets an allegedly amnesiac human-turned-vulpix, Dusk is sure that he’s finally found someone to help him achieve his dream. He asks her to form an exploration team with him.She says no.
Relationships: Partner Pokemon & Player Character (Pokemon Mystery Dungeon)
Series: Team Relic [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1735162
Comments: 6
Kudos: 45





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Did I write a side story instead of updating Backfire? Yes. Is it an elaborate excuse for character development and worldbuilding? Maybe so.
> 
> Expect weekly updates from this one, y'all! Maybe sooner, I'm easily swayed by people being nice to me.

“So please, won’t you form an exploration team with me?”

“Um… no.”

Dusk was shocked. “What – really? Are you sure?”

“Look,” the alleged human-turned-vulpix across from him said, “I don’t know you. The treasure’s cool and all – but I don’t even know who I _am._ ” She swept her tails around her paws and shuffled awkwardly. “I don’t think just jumping into something that I know nothing about with no warning would be a good idea. Especially when I have other stuff to worry about.”

“Oh.” Dusk swallowed. “I see. You’re – you’re sure, then?”

“Sorry.” She didn’t sound sorry.

“No – no, _I’m_ sorry.” Dusk made sure he did. “I shouldn’t have sprung that on you. I’m sorry.” He paused. “So – uh – what are you going to do now?”

There was a moment of heavy silence between them.

“I don’t know,” she said. “I don’t know _anything._ I don’t even know my own name.”

Dusk nodded. He didn’t know what to say. He had no idea what this had to feel like for her – she’d woken up soaked and sand-coated, in the wrong body, with no memories of _anything._ That was horrifying.

And then he’d just dragged her off to get his relic fragment back. She hadn’t even known how to fight – she’s gotten the hang of it, kind of, but she _hadn’t known_ . Now here he was again, dragging this clearly traumatized Pokémon around for _his own stupid reasons._

“I’m sorry.” Dusk said again.

She frowned at him. “I mean, that’s not _your_ fault. You didn’t turn me into a Pokémon.”

“I thought you had no memory?”

She stared at him. “Just because I can’t remember anything doesn’t mean I’m stupid. You’re pretty harmless. I think everyone can see that.” She shrugged and turned back to the ocean. “I don’t know. I guess… I’ll do what feels right. So, uh,” she shrugged, “bye, I guess?”

Oh. Okay. She hated him. “Bye,” Dusk said, his voice raw. He stood there, trying not to shake, and let her walk away.

He made it back home, hid the stairs to his cave, and sat down in his bed until it was too dark to see. He didn’t light a fire. He didn’t cry, or beat himself up. He just sat.

He didn’t sleep, either.

.-.

At the crack of dawn, Dusk rubbed grains of sleep from his eyes. He looked down at his bag and slowly pulled out his relic fragment. He held it tightly between his hands and took a deep breath in.

“Okay,” he said, “okay.” So what if he had a garbage personality? So what if he’d dragged some poor amnesiac off into a mystery dungeon for selfish, pointless reasons? He could get better. He could still be an amazing explorer. It wasn’t like he was a criminal; he was just… a horrible Pokémon…

Dusk flopped back onto his bed. There was just enough light in his cave that he could see, but not enough that any of the shops in Treasure Town would be open yet. The not-a-vulpix from last night would probably still be asleep – or maybe not, she _had_ looked like she’d been asleep for a while before he found her. Or maybe that was just being fainted and didn’t count.

For a perspective explorer, he was pretty stupid. He should know how to recognize a fainted Pokémon. Stupid idiot riolu. He should just give up his name and be done with it, he didn’t deserve any ties to his family. They were so much better at everything than he was. _He_ couldn’t even get up the courage to join the guild.

Dusk sighed and tucked his relic fragment under his bed. He couldn’t take it with him again – not if those two were still hanging around. He’d already been robbed once. But he… he needed to try again.

His entire family was counting on him to be an amazing explorer. They’d put so much work into helping him get to Treasure Town, and he’d left everything behind for the chance to do this. He needed to do this. He needed to sign up for the guild.

It was a few hours before he got the courage to leave his bed.

Treasure Town was active and open by then. He could see some of the guild’s apprentices running around between shops as they got ready for the day’s explorations.

Dusk kept his head down and tried to stay out of their way.

Kecleon Market cleared eventually, and Dusk pawed at the last bit of Poke in his bag. “Hi,” he said, and started to place the coins on the counter. “Uh, do you have any honey in stock?”

“Let me see,” Green Kecleon said, and turned around. Dusk dropped the rest of his coins on the counter. There. Now he had no more money, so he _needed_ to join the guild. They didn’t have an entry fee. Once he was an accomplished explorer he’d be rolling in money and treasures. Of course, he could also just write home and say he was low on funds, and they’d send him more no questions asked, but that wasn’t fair. He needed to support _himself_ now. He was going to support himself now!

A shadow appeared over him and Dusk reflexively flinched as a larger Pokémon stepped up to the counter.

“HEY, Purple!” the loudred shouted, and Dusk covered his ears. “How much for this thing?” He held up a very beautiful golden ribbon. It caught the sun’s rays and lit up the entire market. Dusk stared at it, enraptured, and nearly missed when Green set down the honey he’d requested.

Purple, meanwhile, took the ribbon and held it up to the light. Green leaned over his shoulder, and the brothers _ooh_ ’d as they examined it.

“This, my friend, is a genuine gold ribbon – an amazing, beautiful treasure.” Purple said at last. “I can offer 2500 poke.”

Dusk’s chest seized. His mind went wild, and grabbed images of extravagant treasure bags and wonder maps that he’d be able to afford. Oh, and the food…!

“Sold!” Loudred said, and Purple placed a bag of money on the counter. Loudred held his open treasure bag to the counter and swept the money into his pocket before leaving.

Dusk tore his eyes away from the treasure and shook his head. He couldn’t keep dreaming. He needed to start _doing!_ He reached up to the counter to grab his honey – and grabbed nothing.

There was nothing there.

Green and Purple had their backs turned to him as they found a place to put their new treasure. The honey he’d spent the last of his money on wasn’t on the counter, or the ground in front of him.

_Oh, no._ That loudred must’ve taken it. He was already gone – maybe Dusk could catch up? Yes. He could. Okay. He was _going_ to do this. He was _going_ to chase the other Pokémon down and get his honey back, then he was _going_ to join the guild.

…As soon as he found out where he went.

Loudred had disappeared into the crowd practically automatically. There was no trace of him. He was probably off doing his explorations for the day. And he’d probably get hungry during them, and wouldn’t know that he hadn’t bought the honey, and even if Dusk found him later it’d be too late. And he’d just get yelled at.

Dusk sat down in the grass by the edge of the stream. It was still damp. The early morning dew had worked its way into the soil, replacing it with a thick mud that clung to Dusk’s fur.

Even if he _did_ manage to get to the guild now, there was no way they’d take him in when he looked like he’d just swam in a mudslide. The Wigglytuff Guild was very respectable, and he was not. He was a mistake. He never should’ve deluded himself into coming here – _any_ here. The continent, Treasure Town, _outside…_

It took Dusk a second to register that someone was poking his shoulder. He jumped up, ready for the attack – that wasn’t going to happen, and now he just looked like an idiot.

Bellsprout and the rest of Team Flame stood behind him. “Do you know a vulpix by any chance? Young, female, with a scar on one of her back legs?”

“Uh, no – wait, yes.” Dusk frowned, “Not well but we’ve… met…” he should shut up. “Why?”

“She’s wandering around looking for you,” Bellsprout said. “She’s… telling everyone your name.”

Dusk’s chest seized. Oh, _no,_ had he really upset her that badly? He hadn’t meant to offend her – but he must’ve, because he was so rude and ungrateful and –

“Excuse me?” Dusk tried not to jump as another joined the conversation. It was Spoink, he’d seen him around town before, but something was wrong. Spoink was covered in bruises and scabs, and his bouncing seemed unbalanced. He looked exhausted. Beyond that, there was something else. Dusk couldn’t place it, though.

“I was hoping I could take a minute of your time,” Spoink continued. He was talking to Team Flame, not Dusk, who should really leave so that he wasn’t prying. “You see, I have this pearl that was stolen from me. I’ve been struggling awfully without it! But I heard that it was sighted in a place called Drenched Bluff, but it’s _far_ too dangerous for me to explore myself! Please, would you go get my pearl for me?”

“I’m sorry,” Bellsprout said, “A place with ‘drenched’ in the name isn’t safe for my teammates. Have you asked Team Glee?”

“I have,” Spoink said. He looked like he was about to cry. “I’ve asked everyone. I’ve posted a request with the guild and with officer Magnezone. _Please,_ no one will help me!”

“Give it time,” Camerupt said, comfortingly. Spoink was not comforted.

“I have!” He shouted. “I’ve asked everyone! I’ve waited three days! I _need_ this – please! Why won’t anyone help me?!” Spoink bounced off, crying and stumbling into other Pokémon who’d stopped to watch the commotion.

The denizens of Treasure Town exchanged looks with each other, shrugged, and moved on with their days.

“Anyway,” Bellsprout said, “Vulpix is at the crossroads if you want to go settle your differences. If you need backup, we’ll be heading back that way after we’re done at the market.”

“I’ll be fine,” Dusk said softly. She… wouldn’t hurt him. Maybe. Probably. Hopefully.

Maybe he should just go home and hide. But she was telling everyone his _name…_

With the awkward eyes of Team Flame still on him, and the curious eyes of the rest of the town following suit, Dusk made his way to the crossroads.

She wasn’t there, however. But Spoink was. He wasn’t crying anymore, which was… maybe a good sign? Still, Dusk shouldn’t bother him. But maybe he’d seen her… but Spoink didn’t want to talk to anyone who couldn’t retrieve his pearl… and it wasn’t like _Dusk_ could traverse a mystery dungeon on his own. He'd just need to be rescued, too. But there was no one who’d care to report him missing anytime soon – no one who’d miss him, either.

This was stupid.

Spoink noticed him before he could leave. “Oh, are you looking for your friend?”

“Huh?” Dusk said.

“Vulpix? She was a very nice girl,” Spoink said. “She saw the state I was in and volunteered to go retrieve my pearl for me before I’d even finished my explanation.” He smiled, “She just left a minute ago, but she asked me to wait here for her and let you know, if I saw you, that she wanted to talk.”

Dusk barely heard him. Instead, his mind was just a constant echo of what Bellsprout had said. _A place with ‘drenched’ in the name isn’t safe for my teammates._ She was a fire type, too. If it wasn’t safe for Team Flame, when they were a _real_ exploration team and Vulpix was just one Pokémon all on her own…

She had amnesia. She could barely fight. She didn’t know what she was doing.

He raced past Spoink without another word.

.-.

The path to Drenched Bluff was well marked. It was one of the dungeons that exploration teams frequented, with its apparent connection to the Chingling crime ring. It didn’t take long to reach there running. It didn’t take long to catch up with his target, either.

She must’ve heard his footsteps, because she was waiting for him at the start of the dungeon. She greeted him with a smile. “Oh, hey. I thought you’d be busy with guild stuff.”

“Youdon’tknowwhatyou’redoingandyou’regonnadie,” Dusk said, and collapsed on the path.

“…What?”

“You don’t know what you’re doing,” he repeated, breathing heavily, “and you’re gonna die. Drenched Bluff is a mystery dungeon with water types – you’re a fire type. It’s not safe.”

She gently nudged him with a paw. “I mean, so was Beach Cave.”

“I was there,” Dusk said, “it’s not safe to go in a mystery dungeon alone. The Pokémon inside – they aren’t _right,_ they’ll kill you just for being in the same room as them.”

She tipped her head to the side. “Okay, but, I’m not alone. You’re here again. You’re pretty strong, it won’t be that hard.” She turned back to the dungeon, “Spoink said it was at the end of the dungeon. So we just have to go in, get it, and head back out. It should be easy!”

“What?” Dusk asked. He picked himself off the path. “No, no, I am _not_ strong. And I thought you were mad at me? Why would you want me to come with you?”

She looked back at him again, with a frown this time. “No…? Why would I be mad at you?”

“You were spreading my name around.”

“I was trying to find you?” She said, “I wasn’t spreading anything, you’re the only person I know.” She paused. “Pokémon. Whatever.”

“Oh.” _Right,_ she had amnesia. She didn’t know. She’d just embarrassed them both on accident, because she _didn’t know._ “But you said ‘bye’ last night.”

She stared. “I was leaving? I don’t – _ugh,_ ” she threw her head back and groaned. “We can talk on the way. I don’t know what I did, but I’m sorry. I need to get that pearl back. Are you coming?”

Dusk’s voice was caught in his throat. She looked back at him expectedly. He really wanted to say ‘no.’ She hadn’t wanted to form an exploration team with him, and she’d spread his name around – why should he give her a second glance for this stupid, dangerous task?

But she stood in front of him now, mud caked into her paws just as they were caked into his. She’d dove headfirst into a world she knew nothing about to help someone who needed it, once again.

“Yeah,” Dusk managed, and she gave him a brilliant smile.

“Awesome.”


	2. Chapter 2

“So the name thing… what’s up with that?”

Dusk wiped some shellos slime from his tongue. “Huh?”

“The name thing,” his companion repeated. She had shellos slime smeared across her paws and muzzle, too. It’d probably be a lot weirder if she was still human.

The lack of explanation persisted for a moment before Dusk asked, “What name thing?”

She blinked. “Sorry, that puddle looks like it was a face.” She pointed with a paw, and sure enough, the puddle looked like a vague smile. “Earlier, when you thought I was mad at you – I’m not – but you said I was spreading your name around. What does that mean?”

“Oh.”  _ Duh, _ the only remotely relevant name thing.  _ Stupid.  _ “It just… a social faux pas, I guess. I mean, it’s not illegal, but it’s not something civilized Pokémon do. N-not that I’m saying you aren’t civilized, because I know you didn’t know, but yeah. It’s pretty frowned upon to use a given name in public, or outside of your family or really close friends. So when you were asking for me by name, everyone probably thought we were, uh, exes or something.”

“Huh,” she said. “Neat. Humans don’t do that, the first thing we do when we meet someone is tell them our names.”

“Have you remembered yours yet?” Dusk asked. She gave a small shake of her head and led the way through a corridor.

There were more shellos, and for a while, the conversation died. They made it to the next section of the dungeon – the next ‘floor’ – and easily to the next one after that.

“So,” she spoke up after ages of uncomfortable silence, “if name sharing is such a no-no, why’d you tell me yours?”

Dusk blinked, and then dove forwards to avoid a lileep that had snuck up behind him. It only took one good hit to knock it down, and they didn’t wait for it to get back up.

“I – I don’t know?” He fumbled, “I mean, you were scared and you said you had no memories, and then you said you didn’t remember your name, so I thought – maybe – if I told you mine it’d jumpstart something? It didn’t, though. Did it?”

She shook her head again. “No. I – I don’t know. I still don’t know.” There was more silence as they reached the next section. “So… do you not want me to call you Dusk?”

Dusk blinked. “Uh…” What should he say? What  _ did  _ Pokémon say to that? “I mean, not in public? But, like you said before, you don’t know anyone else. It’s okay, I guess.”

She snorted – Dusk wasn’t sure if she’d gotten some slime in her nose, or if that was supposed to be a laugh. “That’s such a garbage base to build a friendship on. Want to play some stupid ice breakers or something?”

“Uh,”  _ Friendship? _ That was still on the table? “S-sure?”

“Cool. Uh… hm.” She stopped abruptly to let a suspiciously large group of chingling pass around a corner. Dusk held his breath. He was still doing so when she asked her question. “What’s your favourite food?”

“Oh. Uh, orange gummis, definitely.” Dusk whispered, “So… do you answer and then I ask you one, or do I just ask you one, or…?”

“The first one, I guess?” She shrugged, and slowly began to inch her way into the room the chingling had vacated. “I don’t know, though. I had that berry I found in Beach Cave. It was pretty good.”

“Oh.” She’d probably never tried red gummis. Would she even like them? What type  _ were _ humans, anyway? “Uh… what is the most interesting fact you know? For me, it’s that there are over a thousand exploration teams that started out being named ‘Team Awesome’ but only about two hundred who kept that name past the first three months. The number gets smaller the longer you look at it.”

She snorted again. Maybe it was a laugh. “I think… if you lose a limb, then you can get this thing called a phantom limb. Basically, your brain thinks you still have that limb and will make you think you need to move it, or that it itches. The limb often feels smaller than the other, and if you’re stressed or anxious, it can feel like it’s stuck in a painful position. It’s supposed to go away over time.”

“Ew,” Dusk said, and they made their way to the next section.

“My turn,” she smiled, “what’s the guild like? Is it everything you hoped for?”

Dusk’s joints locked and he stumbled – nearly fell on his face. “I – I think that you won’t be able to answer that question, so, maybe pick a different one…”

“Oh.” The smile was gone, and her ears drooped. “Sorry. Um. Maybe we should focus on the dungeon for now.”

_ No, _ Dusk wanted to say. He couldn’t get the word out of his mouth. He wanted to keep talking. But if she didn’t, then he couldn’t be a bother – she had more important things to worry about than  _ him. _

On the seventh section, they encountered a wide tunnel that led onto a cliff face. A pink pearl rested gently against a bolder and glinted in the setting sun. Dusk turned and gave his companion a wary look. She just looked confused.

“I – I think this is a boss room,” Dusk whispered, and watched her watch the sun set. “So – we should be careful. We might get ambushed.”

She tipped her head to the side and said, “Does it always do that?”

Dusk frowned. “The… dungeon? I mean, they don’t always have boss rooms, sometimes they just end. We’ll still have to go back, though,” he looked at the cliff face and gulped. “I – I might have an escape orb that my grandpa sent me, so that takes care of that.” He looked down at his bag, pulled the orb out from the nearly-empty pocket, and looked back up.

Of course, the amnesiac he’d gotten into this mess was gone.

Dusk sucked in a squeaky breath and looked over to watch as the  _ idiot _ casually stepped out onto the open cliff face and stared at the sun.

“Vulpix!” He hissed. She didn’t react. Of course she didn’t react – did she even know what a vulpix was? Dusk shoved the thoughts away and followed her, eyes on the ceiling and walls. Just because he couldn’t see any feral Pokémon didn’t mean there weren’t any.

She still didn’t move. She still stared at the sunset.

“It might be later by the time we get out, or it might reset. It depends on the dungeon,” Dusk muttered, and aside from an ear twitch, there was no hint she’d heard him. “We should get the pearl, and then – then I have an orb, so we should be fine.”

She blinked slowly and extended a paw towards the setting sun. A gust of wind blew over the dungeon behind them. Dusk’s heart, for whatever reason, skipped a beat.

“Nice breeze,” he muttered, and started towards the pearl. It was really nice – he could see why Spoink missed it so badly. The dungeon creaked behind them as Dusk placed the pearl in his bag. “Okay. Let’s go.”

“It’s beautiful,” she muttered back.

“Huh?” Dusk turned to the sunset. It was pretty, he had to admit that. “You should’ve seen the one at the beach when you woke up. The krabbys blow bubbles over the ocean on nice nights, and it’s the most amazing thing I’ve ever seen.”

“This is normal,” she whispered. The dungeon creaked again.

“…I mean, it’s in a mystery dungeon,” Dusk pointed out, “so, no. Time and space are all kinds of messed up in these.”

That seemed to finally, thankfully, get her attention. She stared at him, and took a second to pick her words. She sounded even more baffled than she looked. “Time? As in hours and minutes?”

“Yeah,” Dusk replied, “you know, it was mid-morning when we got here, and even though it’s only been an hour or so, the sun’s setting? It’s like that. It’s pretty cool, honestly – but really dangerous, and we should go. It’s dangerous to stay in one section of a dungeon too long.”

She blinked and tipped her head further to the side. “Dangerous how?”

Another abrupt gust of wind nearly knocked them off their feet, and the dungeon wailed. Pebbles showered around them, and Dusk threw his arms up to protect himself – but he looked up, and realized it would do nothing for the giant boulder barreling towards them.

He snagged a handful of his companion’s fur and yanked her back to the tunnel. “Let’s go!” He shoved her ahead and smashed the escape orb between them.

A shard of rock dug into his head, and then they hit the ground hard.

“Like that,” Dusk whispered. He opened his bag – the pearl was safe. He looked around. He was out. “Hey. H-hey! We did it! We did it!” He looked beside him, pressing back the terrifying whisper of  _ she’s not there, you left her, you’ve gotten an innocent Pokémon killed. _

She was beside him, of course. He knew she would be. She’d landed in a tight, tucked-in ball, with her head to her chest and her eyes squeezed shut. She hadn’t opened them.

It took Dusk a second to realize that it wasn’t the wind ruffling her fur – she was shaking.

_ Fire types are weak to rock. _

“Hey,” he said gently, and sat down a bit closer. He put a paw down beside one of her’s. “That was pretty scary, huh?”

She might’ve nodded. Might’ve.

“Do you want to hold my paw for a bit?”

She did nod. She moved her paw forwards and placed it on top of Dusk’s. He gave her’s a squeeze. She gave his one back.

“Thanks for saving me,” she whispered. Her voice shook.

Dusk squeezed her paw again. “Consider it a thanks for helping me get my Relic Fragment back, okay?”

She snorted. It was a laugh – and that was good. It wasn’t a strong, full laugh, but it wasn’t tears, and her breathing had calmed. “Okay,” she said. “We – we should give Spoink his pearl back.”

“Uh-huh,” Dusk agreed, and helped her up without being asked. She gave him a tiny, awkward smile, and then looked away. Dusk readjusted his tiny bag, and flicked bits of rock from his head. A speckle of blood came with it – not enough to worry anyone, but enough that Dusk abruptly shoved his paw into his armpit to hide the stain.

If his companion noticed, she didn’t say anything. She let Dusk lead the way back.

.-.

Spoink wasn’t at the crossroads. That was fair – it was  _ extremely _ late by the time they got back. The moon was high in the sky, and the galaxy above dyed the sky purple. Though Dusk checked, his new companion didn’t seem as enthralled by that as she’d been with the sunset.

“We’ll probably have to give it to him tomorrow morning,” Dusk said, “I don’t know where he lives.”

“Okay,” She said, and half cut herself off with a yawn.

Dusk rolled the strap of his bag between his paws. “Where did you sleep last night?”

“Oh,” she gave him a sheepish look, “I… didn’t. I didn’t know where to go, and couldn’t find a safe place, so...”

“Oh. Uh,” Dusk yawned too, but covered his mouth with a paw. “You want to… come back to my place? I think I have enough straw to make another bed.”

“Oh.” She stared at him for a second. “Are you sure?”

“Yeah. I mean, I offered, so,” he shrugged, “plus, I still have some apples, so you could have some real food. Okay?”

She swallowed. Dusk suddenly felt very uncomfortable, utterly convinced that he’d overstepped once again and this time she’d hate him for sure.

“Okay,” she said, “thank you.”

Dusk’s smile felt weak and strained. “Cool.” He turned his back to her and led the way once again.

Treasure Town was nearly deserted at this time of night, and this was no different. A few Pokémon walked down the paths, or hung out by the stream, but no one paid any attention to the worn-out pair that trekked down from the crossroads. They made it to Sharpedo Bluff without any issue, and Dusk easily removed the fake bush.

“Ladies first?” Dusk said, trying to joke. She didn’t seem to enjoy it – nor did she move to go down the hole. Dusk swallowed anxiously. She did the same.

Dusk took a breath in. “You can leave if you -”

“Why would you cover your door with a bush? Why not just use a normal door?” she said at the same time. They both paused. “What?” she said.

“What?” Dusk said. “Oh. Uh… I don’t know? It’s just something my grandpa told me to do.”

“Grandpa?” she repeated and tipped her head to the side.

“My dad’s dad,” he elaborated. “He’s, uh, one of the leaders of the exploration federation. Oh, hey!” He perked up, “I should write him a letter! Maybe he’ll know who you are! Or if he doesn’t, he works with some of the best and  _ smartest _ Pokémon there are! They might!”

At some point, her ears had started drooping. Dusk swallowed, looked away, and led the way down the tunnel.

He could replace the bush later, if she followed him.

Dusk pointedly did  _ not _ look back as he entered his home. He kept his eyes focused on the ground as he gathered firewood and started a tiny campfire. He started to drag out some extra hay from his stash – not for an extra bed, of course, for tinder, definitely – but was stopped when he remembered how dirty he was. He scooped a bucket of water from his well, added some soap, and began to scrub.

“Doesn’t this get cold at night?”

Dusk’s heart skipped a beat as he whipped around. She  _ had _ followed him, and now sat in the mouth of the bluff.

“It – it doesn’t get that bad, unless it’s snowing. Usually I’m far enough back that the rain can’t get to me.” Dusk said quickly, “but, uh, there’re caverns deeper in. If you light a fire in them they stay pretty warm. I just prefer the main area.”

“Oh.” She nodded, “I guess that makes sense. Um, before I forget, did you want your bush a certain way?” She pointed back at the stairs, “It was kind of hard to tell with how dark it was.”

“I’m – I’m sure it’s fine.” He took a deep breath and tried to stop shaking so much. “How much hay do you want on your bed? Also, you can use this if you want to wash the mud off. Your sweat could liquefy it while you sleep, and then it’ll get all over your bed, and that’s not fun.”

“I don’t think I have to worry about sweat,” she said, but made her way over anyway. Dusk handed her a clean rag, and watched for a second as she awkwardly tried to hold it with one paw without letting it fall. She switched to her two front paws, where instead, she nearly fell over – Dusk reached over and caught her shoulder.

“Do you want a hand?” He asked.

Her face flushed under her fur. “Yes, please,” she muttered.

Dusk took the rag back, and got to work scrubbing the mud off of his new sorta-maybe-kinda-friend’s paws. They moved closer to the fire when he saw her shiver. They stayed in relative silence for a bit, with the crackling fire and whistling wind providing all they had for a soundtrack. Distantly, some kritatune sang their nighttime song.

“Hey,” She said after a while, “um, Dusk? Can I ask you something?”

Dusk hummed in acknowledgement and shifted the bucket of now murky water closer to the fire.

“Why didn’t you join the guild?”

Dusk could feel the metaphorical knife in his gut twist. He kind of wanted to puke, and he felt much warmer as his face flushed. “I…” he looked up at her eyes, and any half-formed lie he’d been about to claim fell apart on the spot. “I chickened out. Again. I kept putting it off, and then when I finally got the courage to get up and go to town I heard you were looking for me, so…” he frowned. “Why were you looking for me?”

She shrugged. “Like I said, it’s not like I know anyone else. I didn’t know what I was supposed to do – I can barely remember anything, and you thought I was lying when I told you, how would everyone else react?” She paused. “Do you still think I’m lying?”

“No,” Dusk said, a bit surprised by how sure of himself he sounded. “And I don’t think you’re a bad Pokémon, either.”

Her smile was weak, but she gave it anyway. “Thanks. That means a lot to me.” She looked away, back at the fire. “I still… don’t really want to join the guild. I mean, I was a social nightmare today when I was just trying to look for you, imagine how much worse I would be there? I don’t want to ruin this for you. But, uh, if you wanted someone to come with you – for support, I mean, while you join – I can probably do that.”

“Oh,” Dusk replied. It made sense, and it wasn’t that he wasn’t thankful,  _ but – _ “Thank you. I just wish I didn’t need something like that.”

“Yeah,” she muttered, “and I wish I knew what was bugging me right now.”

Dusk dipped the rag in the slightly warmer water. “Do you want to talk about it?”

She pulled a face that was somewhere crossed between a wince and grimace. “I don’t know. It’s just… we got to the end of that dungeon and now  _ something’s _ bothering me. I can’t tell if it was the rocks or something I saw or something I heard or what, but it’s bugging me like crazy. It feels like – you know when you walk into a room to do something, but when you go through the door you forget? It’s like that but painful.” She shook her head and pawed at her ear. “Not painful, I guess. But it aches.”

Dusk let her speak and finished scrubbing the mud from her fur. With that gone, he could see what looked like a deep scar around her back right leg. It looked  _ old –  _ which didn’t make sense if she’d only just turned into a vulpix. Why would a scar carry over in some sort of weird body-swap thing?

She’d turned back to look at him, and Dusk refocused on getting the mud off himself. It would be a process – the water was  _ disgusting _ now. “Is there anything I can do to help?” He asked.

She shrugged. “You’re helping a lot already. I’m not sleeping outside tonight.” She glanced at the mouth of the bluff, “Well. Kinda. I’ll be fine.” The smile she offered was strained. “Thank you.”

“No problem,” Dusk said, and did his best not to glance at the scar again. “So, uh, the hay’s over on that wall. You’re mud-free now, if you want to set up your bed.”

“Okay.” She didn’t look back at him as she went to grab some. Dusk looked at his limbs and decided this was ‘good enough’ before he took the bucket over to the bluff’s edge. He clipped the rag onto the clothesline he’d hung between the teeth and dumped the muddy water over the side. He brought the bucket back and watched the other Pokémon struggle to grab some hay for a second.

“You’re not great with your paws, are you?” He asked. She huffed.

“I miss my thumbs,” she groaned, and looked over at him with wide, pleading eyes. “Please help.”

Dusk grabbed the pile she’d be struggling with without an issue. “So,” he started, and began to arrange the pile near the fire. “I was thinking that uh, tomorrow, while we’re trying to find Spoink and give him his pearl back, I could show you around town. If you’d like that, I mean.”

“And then you’ll go to the guild?” She asked, eyebrow ridges raised expectantly.

“Yeah, yeah,” Dusk huffed. “After I know you’re not going to accidentally break into someone’s house or something.”

“I  _ really _ hate how that’s a valid worry,” she muttered, and tucked into her bed the second Dusk pulled his paws back. “Thanks again.”

“No problem,” Dusk replied, and sat down on his own bed. He paused. “…Again.” She snorted. “We should get some rest. The shops open early.” He flopped down on his bed and cringed. He reached under his back and pulled out his relic fragment. He pulled a face and tried to fit it in his tiny bag – he gave up after a second, it wasn’t going to fit around Spoink’s pearl. Not without scratching it to pieces.

His companion’s hum of agreement switched to tiny snores practically instantly.

“…Oh,” Dusk said, and rolled over so his back was to the fire. “Right. G’night, then.” He tucked his bag and relic fragment in by his stomach and curled around them.

Whatever anxieties he’d fallen asleep with were realized when he was woken up by frantic shaking and a terrified voice whispering his name.


	3. Chapter 3

It was barely past dawn. Still, Dusk sprung to his feet with a _bite_ churning in his jaw.

The terrified vulpix beside him had her ears flattened back as she pointed out the mouth of the bluff. Dusk turned, expecting a rogue wave that would wipe out treasure town, nevermind his _house –_

But there was nothing. Sure, some pelipper flew around, and a dragonite met them mid-air to hand over a package, but that was _nothing._ The waves were fine, and the sky had just begun to light up with a sunrise to the east.

He turned back to her, the _bite_ steadily fading. She pointed again.

There was still nothing.

Well, that was a move wasted for the day. He crossed his arms and stared at her expectantly.

“This is _so unguarded,_ ” She finally hissed, and yanked him back, closer to the stairs. “They could get in easily; we could be _attacked_ in our sleep! This was a mistake. This was a horrible mistake; how could I be so _stupid?_ ”

Oh. Okay, that was fair, actually. “Hey,” he said, and held his paws out. “No one’s going to attack us. We’re on the town border – you don’t start battles in town, no one’s that stupid.”

She glared. Dusk flinched. She spoke in a hurried whisper, “Town _border_ isn’t town. If we need defense, it’ll take _time_ for them to get here. We could be dead by then!”

Dusk pulled his paws back and watched her shake. There wasn’t any reason to be afraid – but if anyone knew how hard it was to calm down when you were wound up and everyone kept telling you that you were _wrong,_ it would be him. A distraction and removing her from the situation that was scaring her would be better.

“The shops should be opening by now,” he said, “do you… want to go see the town?”

It worked. She relaxed slightly. “Okay,” she said.

“Cool. Give me a second.” Dusk slung his little bag over his shoulder, held the relic fragment in one paw, and moved quickly over to his well. He washed his face, grabbed a tiny apple, and met her at the stairs. “Breakfast,” he said, and offered it to her.

She ate it in two bites and spit out the seeds.

“…Okay,” Dusk said, kicked the seeds aside, and led the way to Treasure Town.

It was early enough that there wasn’t much going on yet. None of the guild’s apprentices had left to get ready for the day’s exploration yet, and only a few other teams were up and about. There were plenty of Treasure Town’s normal denizens taking care of their day’s shopping, however.

“So,” Dusk said, and stretched his arms high above his head. “Down here we have Kangaskhan Storage, she manages the Kangaskhan rocks in the area. Uh, down that path is Xatu’s shop, I think he’s a locksmith? I don’t really know what his deal is, but he’s gone a lot, so I guess it’s important. Then we have the Kecleon shop. They’re a general store for explorers and normal citizens. Everyone calls them by their colours -”

“Oh! Riolu!” Purple shouted, shaking his brother’s shoulder as Dusk turned to face them. “Come here!”

Dusk swallowed. Purple didn’t sound angry, but what if he _was?_ Well, then – then it was probably a bad plan to make him angrier. He checked to make sure his companion followed as he made his way up to the store front.

“Uh, hi,” he said as Green turned around, “how are you guys today?”

“Excellent, very excellent!” Purple said quickly, and Green turned back to place a small jar of honey on the counter.

“Uh,” Dusk said, intelligently.

“Loudred accidentally took your honey yesterday,” Green said, “By the time he realized, you’d disappeared! He said he’d keep an eye out and return it to you, but we’re very sorry that this happened to a valued customer! Please, you paid for it!” He pushed it towards Dusk. “Consider it a gift if you must!”

“Oh.” _Oh._ Dusk took it slowly and tried not to let his hands shake. “Wow. Uh, thank you?”

“That’s sweet of you,” the vulpix beside him said, smiling at Green. She seemed genuine, but Dusk saw how she’d tensed up again.

“O-oh!” He said quickly and gestured back at her. “This is my friend, Vulpix. She’s new around here, so I’m showing her around!”

She gave him a bit of an annoyed look at the name, but other than that, didn’t react.

“Welcome, welcome to our fine town!” The brothers said.

“You may call me Green,” Green said, “I run Kecleon Market!”

“And I go by Purple,” Purple said, “I run Kecleon Wares! Please, let us know if we can help you with anything!”

“Thank you,” she said easily. She dug her paws into the dirt.

“W-well,” Dusk said, “we –”

“Azurill! Wait up!”

Two small blue Pokémon ran up, one nearly crashing into vulpix. She froze and stared at them.

“Hello!” Azurill said, and Marill, out of breath, began shifting through his bag. “Mama sent us over to buy an apple, some sugar, and um…” he looked back at Marill.

“Poppy seeds,” Marill said, and placed a small bag of coins on the counter.

“Poppy seeds!” Azurill said as he began to bounce on his tail. Dusk watched his companion watch the little boy in absolute confusion.

“Ah, of course,” Purple said, and Green began to gather the items. “How is your mother doing, you too?”

“She’s okay,” Marill said quietly, and directed Azurill a bit away from the now obviously confused vulpix. “She said she was going to try and make us some desert for Azurill’s birthday, if the pain wasn’t too bad.”

“I told her I wanted apple crisp!” Azurill said. He turned to Dusk, “Do you like apple crisp?”

“I’ve never had it,” Dusk said, and placed a calming paw on his companion’s shoulder. She did relax a bit. “We should let you guys get your shopping done. C’mon,” he started to direct her away, “we still need to find Spoink.”

“Bye!” Azurill said, bouncing higher now. “Have a nice day!”

“Azurill, careful!” Marill chided, “you’re going to –”

As if an accident had been spoken into existence, Azurill smacked his head on the canopy and dropped like a rock.

Dusk’s paw fell through the air as his companion dashed forwards, rolled, and caught Azurill before he could hit the dirt. She flopped back as Azurill rolled off her, quietly crying.

“Oh, jeez,” Marill said, and checked his brother over, “what did I say? I told you to be careful! You could’ve hurt yourself worse. Thank you,” he looked at Pokémon in front of him. She was still sprawled on the ground. She shook her head and abruptly sprung up, looking around.

“It’s no problem, really,” Dusk said quickly, and resumed carefully directing her away from the group. “Have a nice day!”

He’d managed a few steps and thankfully put a bush between them and the shop when his companion dug in her heels and forced him to stop.

“I heard a scream,” she said.

“…Okay?” Dusk said.

“Don’t look at me like that!” She hissed, “I heard a scream! It sounded like Azurill, and he screamed for help.”

“I’m not looking at you like anything!” Dusk said, trying to sound placating. It didn’t come out right and she glared at him. “I’m just saying, I didn’t hear a scream. Did you get enough sleep last night?”

“I got _enough,_ yeah.” She huffed, “a little kid screamed for help. I know what I heard.”

“You’re the only one who heard it, that’s all I’m saying.” Dusk said, wilting a bit under her tone. “I’m not calling you a liar or anything. It could’ve been a lot of things – you hit your head trying to catch him, or maybe there was some sort of scream from the guild and they’re going to handle it. Whatever happened, you don’t need to worry about it, okay?”

She sighed. “Sure. Okay.” She didn’t look convinced. “Sorry for snapping at you.”

Dusk couldn’t help but smile. “Thanks for apologizing.”

Whatever else they were about to add switched tracks abruptly when she noticed someone across the way. “Oh! Spoink!”

The two of them turned around as Spoink did, and Dusk shuffled his items to hold up the pearl.

“You two! You found it!” Spoink bounced over, and Dusk handed over the pearl. Spoink levitated it to the top of his head, and the dark bags under his eyes automatically faded. His bruises and scabs began to heal, and he pulled Dusk into a tight hug. “Thank you! Thank you! Vulpix, please come here –”

“No thanks,” she said, “I’m not as touchy as Dusk is.”

Dusk mentally cringed and resisted the urge to point out he wasn’t ‘touchy’ _either,_ but was saved when Spoink put him down.

“I have to repay you.” Spoink said as he dug through his bag. “Please – please take… oh! These!” He handed over a selection of clearly very expensive vitamins. “And this! 2000 poke should be enough for your trouble, right? I have more if not!”

By now, _plenty_ of other Pokémon were staring at them. Dusk stared at the pile in front of him. “Uh… Spoink, we can’t –”

“This is plenty, thank you,” his companion cut him off. “It’s all in the day's work for a new guild recruit!”

“Oh? You’re part of the Guild?” Spoink asked, “Why didn’t you say so? Tell me, do you have a team name? I have to spread the word of the best team in the region!”

“I’m not part of it yet,” Dusk said quickly, trying not to trip over his words. He failed. “I – we’re just going up there today, actually, after we finish with town. And I don’t have a team, it’s – it’s just me.”

“Nonsense, Vulpix is right there!” Spoink said, and managed to make this whole encounter even worse. “You should pick a team name before you go up there so you’re not unprepared! Would you like some help to brainstorm? I think Team Awesome would be an amazing name!”

Dusk glanced at his companion as she muffled a snort. “Thank you for the offer,” she said, perfectly diplomatic, “but this has to be something we do ourselves.” She glanced at Dusk. “After we drop everything off.”

She took the lead, and thankfully it was easy enough to make their way back to Kangaskhan Storage. _Finally,_ Dusk had space in his bag for both his honey and his relic fragment.

His companion watched from a short distance away. “What about the money?” 

“Oh. That goes to the bank.” Dusk took the lead, and kept the money clasped tightly in both paws. It was enough for a real treasure bag. “I’ll show you the way.”

She followed the slow pace Dusk set, and he continued his tour.

“Electrivire runs that shop, he does something called ‘linking moves’ – it’s pretty expensive, so I’ve never tried it, but my grandpa is a big fan of it. It’s a technique that combines moves, though it drains your energy faster. Down there is an abandoned building, so we should probably avoid it, and Chansey Daycare. It’s really more of an orphanage, but she takes care of any newborns or orphaned eggs until she can find them a home. She’s pretty nice, but I don’t really go there. Kids get a bit too loud for me. And ahead is -”

Of _course_ she wasn’t behind him anymore, and Dusk had been talking to thin air.

After the embarrassment had finished mutilating his heart and lungs, he finally caught sight of her. She was talking to the two young brothers and a drowzee. Dusk ran over to join them, and caught the end of Drowzee’s words.

“Up on Mt. Bristle, I believe.” He said.

“Why didn’t you grab it then?” His companion asked, purposefully calm.

“My Treasure Bag was full,” Drowzee said, and gave the well-worn bag swung over his shoulder a few pats. “That’s the problem with being a hobbyist explorer, you see. Things pile up fast – oh.” He frowned at Dusk. “Hello.”

“Hi,” Dusk said, “don’t mind me, I was just looking for my friend.” _Friend._ It felt so much better to say than ‘her’ or ‘companion.’ Dusk couldn’t help but smile.

“Drowzee here says he found one of the boy’s treasures yesterday,” his _friend_ said.

“It used to be our dad’s!” Azurill shouted, and Marill reached over to keep him from bouncing too high. “It’s called a Water Float, and it was _his_ when he was a baby, and then it was Marill’s and then it was mine!”

“We’re going to go get it,” Marill said, “I just have to drop Azurill off at home –”

“What?” Azurill’s bouncing abruptly stopped. “What? B-but I want to come too!” Tears started to well up, “I want to find dad’s treasure!”

“We’re wasting time arguing,” Drowzee said quietly, “I can protect you both from ferals, but not from a shifting dungeon.”

His friend kept her eyes on Drowzee. “We’ll take him home,” she offered Marill.

“Uh,” Marill swallowed. He shook his head. “No. We’ll be fine. Azurill –”

“Yay!” The tears were gone, and Azurill flung himself out of Marill’s grasp. “C’mon! C’mon! We have to find Dad’s treasure!”

“Azurill, wait!” Marill shouted, and ran after his brother. Drowzee shook his head and followed at a much slower pace. His hand briefly brushed against Dusk’s friend’s muzzle, and the both of them jerked away from each other.

“Ah, sorry,” Drowzee said, and followed the brothers much more quickly.

“…Well. That was sweet of him.” Dusk said as he watched them go. “Azurill can be kind of a handful, from what I’ve gathered. But I can understand that. Kinda. I have a little sister, so…” He looked over as his friend shook her head and squeezed her eyes shut. “Oh. Jeez. You okay?”

“I…” she looked around, apparently confused for a second. “I think I saw something. That scream I heard earlier. I saw it.”

Dusk frowned and directed her off to the side, away from and prying ears. “What do you mean?”

She took a deep breath in. “This sounds _crazy._ Crazier than just hearing a scream. Please believe me when I say it happened.”

Dusk hummed and gestured for her to continue.

“Drowzee and Azurill were somewhere mountainous. Drowzee blocked Azurill from leaving – said if he tried, he’d be in big trouble. Then Azurill screamed for help – it was the same scream I heard before.”

Dusk looked her over. She looked and sounded like she was telling the truth, but – “How could you see something like that? You’re not a psychic type.”

She shrugged. “I’m a human-turned-Pokémon. Clearly, some things got messed up.” Dusk gave a vague hum, and her face fell. “You don’t believe me, do you?”

“You have to admit that it’s a bit hard to believe,” Dusk pointed out. “I believe that _you_ believe you saw something, but… it just doesn’t make any sense. I’m sorry. I know you didn’t sleep too well last night, so maybe that and the stress combined… I’m not making a lot of sense here, I’m sorry.”

She sighed. “I’m not either. Don’t be sorry; you’re right. He did seem really nice, too. Maybe I’m just being weird.” She gestured vaguely with a paw. “Okay. Uh. Bank?”

“Right!” He led the way to Duskull Bank. “This place is really useful if you’re going to be doing a lot of dungeon exploration. If you faint in a dungeon, when it starts shifting the dungeon will take away some of your money and items. Or you could get robbed by some sort of crook.” He approached the counter and set the bag Spoink had given them on the counter. His companion stayed behind him as Duskull turned around.

“Ah, hello Riolu. I have a gift for you.”

“I have a deposit – a what?” Dusk stared at the other Pokémon as he levitated a large bag of money onto the counter.

“10,000 Poke, courtesy of your Grandfather. It just arrived yesterday.”

“Oh.” Dusk glanced at his bag and hesitated a second before he shook his head. “Send it back, I have my own money I’d like to deposit.” He sat the 2000 on the counter.

“I’ll take the giant money bag,” his friend whispered. She sounded like she was joking, so Dusk laughed – she snorted. It _had_ been a joke! He’d got it right!

“If you insist,” Duskull said, and levitated the bag away. “I’ll keep it safe for you. Forever, if you wish!” He cackled.

His friend rolled her eyes. “Ominous, thanks!” They left without much fanfare.

“You sounded like you liked him,” Dusk said. They were at the crossroads now.

“He seemed friendly,” she replied, and stepped up to take the lead. She pointed up the gigantic staircase. “So… that’s it, huh?”

Dusk swallowed and nodded. He could see the tip of the entrance tent staring at him with beady, terrifying eyes.

“Looks creepy,” she said, which was _not_ comforting. Then she shrugged. “Alrighty, let’s go!” She ran up the steps.

“What? Wait!” Dusk scrambled after her. “Just like that? No pep talk? No ‘you can do it, I believe in you’ or anything?”

“Less talking, more doing!” She said, and then they were there. Right in front of the grate. She stepped to the side and gestured to it.

Dusk froze in place.

 **“HEY!”** Someone shouted from below ground, startling them both. “Whoever’s up there, get ON the grate! Quit wasting our time!”

Dusk swallowed and gave his friend a pleading look. He didn’t know what he was pleading for.

“C’mon,” she said gently as she approached his side. They moved together, one step at a time. They stood on the grate side by side.

“Pokémon detected!” a new voice shouted from below them. “Pokémon detect – uh… are there two of you up there?”

“Yep!” His friend called back. Dusk felt like he was going to pass out.

“Oh.” The voice continued, “Um… okay then. Uh… the footprint is Riolu’s and…”

“Riolu’s and WHAT?” The other voice demanded, and it felt like the grate shook under them.

“Um…”

There was a long, heavy pause. Dusk and his friend exchanged bewildered looks.

“Maybe… maybe Vulpix!” The voice said after a long moment.

“What? MAYBE?!” There was an echoing scoff, “Some sentry you are!”

“My dad says there’s no shame in not knowing something.”

“Your DAD is a lunatic!”

There was a scandalized gasp, a tremor in the ground, and then the argument continued much more quietly.

“Uh…” Dusk cleared his throat, “That… was weird, I think.”

His friend shuffled in place. “Were they identifying us by our footprints? Wouldn’t that be hard with the grate in the way?” She glanced down. “Also, does it tickle your feet? Because it feels so weird on mine.”

“Oh, yeah, absolutely.” Dusk agreed quickly and ran a paw over one of the bars. “What do you think it’s made of? It looks like some sort of plant fiber.”

His friend shrugged. “Ticklish tubulars?”

Dusk grinned. “Cackling cacti?”

The smile his friend gave him was brilliant and amazing. “Laughing legumes?”

“Mirth-filled mulberry?”

“What does mirth even mean?”

Dusk shrugged. “Something to do with laughter, I’ve heard.”

There was an echoing _ahem,_ and they turned their attention back downwards. “Sorry to make you WAIT,” the shouty voice said, not sounding very sorry at all. “But we _guess_ you don’t seem like bad Pokémon, even if a vulpix is unusual. You’d BETTER not prove me wrong!”

There was a grind, and Dusk stood right beside his friend, a paw in her fur, as the metal grate in front of them opened.

“Oh,” he said, intelligently. “Okay.”

“Excellent!” His friend beamed at him. Dusk still felt like he was going to pass out. “Do you want me to come in and be there for you as you get all signed up?”

“Yes, please,” Dusk whispered, and took a few steps forwards. She stayed right beside him and matched each of his steps.

There was a ladder in the center of the tent, which despite the annoyed face his friend pulled at the sight of it, they had no trouble getting down.

The inside was huge – it had been dug into the side of the cliff, clearly, and had to expand all the way back to the stairs. Other exploration teams milled around – the Poochyena brothers stood in front of a board, tails wagging as they talked. Then, they all jumped up and snatched off a job each.

The board flipped around a second later.

“Oh my gosh!” Someone behind Dusk said, and he turned around to see a sunflora, a bidoof right behind her. “Oh, you two are just the cutest! Are you here selling cookies or something?”

“No?” Dusk said.

“My buddy here wants to join the guild,” his friend said, and bumped him with her shoulder.

“Eek! Oh my gosh, really?” Sunflora clapped. The bidoof behind her stared at Dusk in a sort of dumbfounded, sort of amazed way. It was weird. “Oh, that’s so wonderful! Hold on, just a second! I’ll go get Chatot!” She squealed again as she ran off.

“…Yeah, okay.” Dusk and his friend said at roughly the same time. They looked at each other and started snickering for no reason.

“Oh, golly,” Bidoof sniffled, “new recruits…”

Dusk saw his friend’s face fall. “Recruit,” she corrected, “just the one. I’m not… I’m not a part of this.” She gave Dusk an apologetic glance, but it only made him feel worse.

“Oh! Oh, golly, I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to assume, Miss Vulpix.” She twitched. Bidoof flinched.

This was… a really bad first impression. Dusk had to fix it. “So, uh, Bidoof, right? I’m Riolu.” Bidoof nodded. That was good? Maybe? “Are you an apprentice here?”

“Yup yup! Just started ‘bout six months ago, now. You’re gonna be our first new apprentice since then!” He blushed, “I – I’ve been looking so forward to having a junior apprentice, to mentor and stuff… oh! Would you like me to show you around?”

Dusk wanted to point out that he’d been living in town for eight months and knew his way around just fine. He didn’t though, because that would be rude. “Sure.”

“O-oh!” Bidoof, apparently, hadn’t expected him to agree. Dusk was struck with the thought that Bidoof might be more awkward than he was, which was _weird._ “Well – well, oh golly, I’m getting so flustered!” He took a deep breath and pointed to the board on the left side of the room – Dusk turned to look at it. “That there is the main job notice board. That’s where you find item retrievals, rescues, escort missions… sometimes even full on treasure hunts, yup yup! And that one on the right is –”

A siren blared. The Poochyenas howled. The board flipped back over.

“Oof, that was an interruption.” Bidoof said sheepishly, “where was I?”

“The board on the right,” Dusk’s friend replied, helpfully. Dusk himself stared at the board.

“Oh! Yes, right!” He cleared his throat. His voice faded into the background. “That there is the outlaw notice board.”

Dusk moved slowly over to the board. He could see the poster just fine from where he was standing, but he had to be sure. _Needed_ to be sure. His gut churned as he climbed off the wall and snatched the poster off its peg. He hit the ground hard, poster clutched in his paws.

“Dusk?” His friend whispered, suddenly beside him. “What’s wrong?”

“You were right,” he whispered, and held up the poster for her.

“Drowzee?” She repeated, her voice quiet as well. “I don’t – oh.” She looked up at the board, then back at Bidoof. “Oh _no._ ”

Dusk shoved the now-crumpled wanted poster into his bag and they _ran,_ rolling under the wings of a chatot who’d just come up the ladder.

He squawked. “What is the meaning of –”

They were already gone.


	4. Chapter 4

They ran into Marill halfway there. Drowzee had abandoned him and gone on ahead with Azurill. He showed them the way to Mt. Bristle.

“Okay,” Dusk said, “here’s the plan. Go back to town, tell officer Magnezone what’s up. We’ll head up, keep him busy, and try to get Azurill away. Okay?”

Marill nodded, tears in his eyes. “Okay,” he said. He looked between the both of them for a painful second before he ran back to town. Dusk and his friend set a hurried pace up the mountain.

“I’m sorry I didn’t believe you,” Dusk said.

“I didn’t believe me, either.” She admitted. “But we know now, right? We can stop him before Azurill gets hurt.”

“Yeah,” Dusk said, looking up the mountain. “Yeah.”

His heart pounded in his chest, desperately trying to worm its way out from the guilt that had encased it. It was a bit hard to breathe still, and part of Dusk was convinced that now was the perfect time to lay down and have a breakdown. Except they were in a dungeon now, so stopping at all would be a _very bad idea._

Besides, Azurill was just a little kid.

For several floors and three times as many geodudes, the two of them stayed silent. Dusk tried to _bite_ a starly and got a feather up his nose, and his companion managed to use _faint attack_ without falling on her face.

“I’m sorry,” she said eventually.

“Why?” Dusk frowned and led them to the next section – it wouldn’t be much longer until they were at the peak.

“I should’ve tried harder to convince you,” she said, and looked at him with wide eyes. “I _knew_ something was up, and I knew I sounded crazy – but I should’ve tried harder. This wouldn’t have happened if I wasn’t such an idiot coward.”

Dusk sputtered. “W-what? _You_ think you’re a coward? And you’re not an idiot! You have a reason for not knowing what’s going on!”

“Yeah, being _human,_ ” she spat, “that doesn’t make any sense, you know? I don’t even know how that’d work. I can’t even remember what I looked like or my name or _anything!_ ”

“Whoa, hey!” Dusk stopped and grabbed her shoulders. “Hey. It’s okay.”

“It’s not okay. None of this is okay.”

“…Okay, yeah,” Dusk sighed. “Fine. It’s not okay. It’s not going to be okay as long as this is bothering you, and that’s fair. I get that. You had a weird thing happen to you, and you’re confused and upset. That’s my constant state, I get it.” She snorted. Dusk smiled. “But you don’t have to apologize for not knowing how to deal with the weirdest thing that’s ever happened to anyone, ever.”

“I’m sorry I dragged you into this,” she said.

“I’m glad you did,” Dusk said, and he really, genuinely meant it. “You’re a good Pokémon. Funny and clever, and I would never have made it to the guild if it wasn’t for you.”

“Technically, you still didn’t.” She pointed out.

“Right. Uh. We’ll deal with that later.” She smiled, soft and gentle, as he shuffled in place. “But you’re not a coward, either – I wouldn’t be able to function if I was in your situation. At all. I’d have curled up under a rock and spent the past three days crying.”

“I spent a lot of this morning crying,” she said.

“I spend a lot of most of my mornings crying and I haven’t gone through half the stuff you have, no judgement from me.” He ran his paws through her shoulder fur and smiled. “Now let’s go rescue Azurill. And next time you get a fancy future vision, I’ll fight anyone who dares to doubt you.”

She snickered, and they were off once more.

.-.

**“H-help!”**

Dusk froze for a second. His companion jumped. They exchanged a look.

“That what you heard the first time?” Dusk asked.

“Yeah,” she said.

“Oh. Yeah, now I get why you freaked out.”

He took off running, his friend right on his heels – they breached the end of the dungeon in seconds, crashing onto the peak and the ‘boss room’ it held.

“Stop right there!” Dusk shouted as that _awful_ man came into view. Azurill trembled behind him, tail wrapped tightly around himself.

“Gah!” Drowzee whipped around, staring at them. “Y-you two!”

“Azurill,” his friend said, her voice a low growl, “back up.”

“O-okay,” Azurill whispered. He did so. Drowzee also backed up, trying to grab him – Azurill rolled out of the way and tucked himself behind a rock.

Drowzee growled. “Come on!” He snapped, “I wasn’t going to hurt the kid or nothin’!”

“You kidnapped him,” Dusk said. He stepped back, ready to fight, “And we _saw_ your wanted poster at the guild. This isn’t your first mistake – but we _will_ make it your last!”

Drowzee looked… less threatened. “You’re shaking like a leaf.”

Dusk glanced at his paw. So he was. But he wasn’t afraid – okay, he was, _but…_ he could do this. His friend was right beside him, trembling a bit too, but her lips were pulled back in a snarl. They weren’t letting Drowzee get away.

Drowzee laughed. “Cute. I get it – you two aren’t even an exploration team, are you? You’re just a couple of kids. I bet she only just got her sixth tail.” He rolled his shoulders back, “come on then, kiddos. Let’s see how long you last.”

The battle was on – his friend dove in with a _faint attack,_ and Dusk backed her up with a _bite._ Drowzee sidestepped them both, laughing.

“Shut up!” Dusk heard his friend shout, and then Drowzee looked at her with a glint in his eye – and she froze on the spot.

Dusk bit back a growl and dove in with another _bite_ – Drowzee looked at him with that same glint and he fell out of the air, paralyzed.

“Dusk!” His friend shouted as her paralysis shattered. She flung herself forwards with an _ember_ burning through her lips – and again, Drowzee, stepped to the side.

“Don’t just go shouting true names around,” he said, looking down at her with a melodic voice, “that’s _bad etiquette._ ”

_Hypnosis,_ Dusk’s mind supplied, but it was too late to do anything – he saw his friend droop, blank eyes staring at nothing. He tried to focus on his limbs, on gaining control back one by one just like his Grandfather had taught him, but –

Drowzee towered over him, and he was frozen prone on the ground. Psychic energy coated his hands, and a multicoloured ray hit Dusk’s head full blast.

“Dumb kid,” Drowzee said, and delivered another – Dusk felt like he was about to pass out, right then and there, from how badly his head _hurt._ “Next time, stay out of things that don’t involve you.” He prepared another, and Dusk clenched his jaw, waiting and willing the pain to _end._

Then he realized he could move his jaw.

In one of the most disgusting moments of his life, Dusk latched onto Drowzee’s ankle with the hardest _bite_ he could manage. The outlaw howled in pain and fell back, and Dusk pushed through his pounding head, his paralysis, and wiped the blood that had leaked from his nose.

“You first,” he said, and on unsteady feet dove for Drowzee’s knee – he bit down, hard as he could, twisting his teeth and tearing at the flesh.

“You rat!” Drowzee spat, and kicked him off. Dusk’s pounding head hit the dirt, and where he had fallen, he could see Azurill, trembling behind a rock. The ground shook with Drowzee’s steps, and Dusk struggled to find the strength in his arms to _move, c’mon!_

There were quicker, running footsteps, and Dusk saw the glint of his friend’s _faint attack_ before Drowzee fell to the ground in front of him, Dusk’s friend on top of him, breathing heavily.

“You okay?” She asked.

Dusk wiped more blood away. “Yeah.”

She bit her lip and turned her head. “Azurill? You okay?”

The little boy nodded.

“Cool,” she said, and stepped off of Drowzee. He didn’t get back up. Dusk forced himself to sit up, paw to his head, and his companion slowly made her way around to sit beside him. Azurill slowly made his way out from behind the rock, and gave Drowzee a wide berth. He tucked in behind the two of them, still shaking, and trying to press as close to them as he could.

“Um,” Azurill said, “Mr. Drowzee, um, had some… had some berries. If you’d like one.”

“I’m okay,” Dusk whispered. The ground felt like it was spinning under him, but he didn’t want to worry everyone by laying back down.

“No, you’re not.” His friend said, and began to dig through Drowzee’s bag. She pulled out several seeds and an oran berry, which she offered Dusk. He took it, and with only a few bites his headache was soothed.

“We’re gonna have to drag him down the mountain to meet up with your brother,” Dusk said, and Azurill nodded.

“M’kay,” he whispered, and looked over to the spire that led to the true peak of the mountain – it looked like it was out of the dungeon’s bounds, but there was a tiny hole in it. “Um. Mr. Drowzee wanted me to go in there, and – and he said there was a treasure in there.”

Dusk perked up a bit. “Oh?” He forced himself to stand and started making his way over. The ground still turned under his feet, and it was hard to keep his balance.

“I think it’s a bit small for you,” his friend said dully, and Azurill snickered.

“It is,” Dusk replied. It wasn’t small enough for his paw, however, and he could fit that in easily so after that, he – he just had to focus.

He wasn’t good with aura. His little sister was great, because of course she was, but Dusk had struggled to even manage the basics. He took a deep breath, closed his eyes, and reached out. His ear tassels pulled at the edges of his already pounding head as Dusk took a look inside.

It was a huge, open room, with a steep drop on the other side of the hole – it looked like the entirety of the mountain had been hollowed out. It didn’t reach the dungeon. There were several long, sloped tunnels that reached out farther than Dusk’s aura did.

He pulled back, his tassels dropping. He looked back at his friend, Azurill, and the outlaw they’d captured.

“No treasure,” he said. He started back over, smiling at Azurill. “Now, let’s get you home.”

.-.

Marill and Azurill held each other, sobbing, and Dusk and his friend briefed the officers who held the semiconscious Drowzee.

“We cannot thank you enough, really!” A Magnemite Officer said, their voice buzzing a bit between each word. “We will send the rewards to your home base. Are you two an exploration team?”

“He almost is,” his friend said, and nudged Dusk with a paw. “We just have to get registered at Wigglytuff’s. That was going to be our plan today, but…” she gestured to Drowzee.

“Of course, of course!” Magnemite said, “Would you like us to send the reward there, then? What is your Team Name and badge number?”

“O-oh,” Dusk frowned, “I’m not a part of it yet. And she’s just… not. H-how about I give you my home address instead? We can pick it up there. We probably won’t make it back to the guild in time tonight…”

Magnemite seemed to frown – it was hard to tell – but nodded. “Of course.” They passed over some paper and ink. Dusk wrote his information down. He could feel his friend staring over his shoulder.

There wasn’t much else to do; the officers left, with the one they’d been talking to offering to take the brothers home. Dusk and his friend were left to limp back on their own.

“Do you want to go out to eat tonight?” Dusk asked, “There’s this café in town that makes some pretty good pasta. Have you had pasta?”

His friend shrugged.

“Oh.” Cool. Great. Dusk stayed silent too, licking his lips for the next ten minutes.

She broke the silence. “So, uh, I was thinking,” she licked her lips too, “if you… if you still wanted a teammate, which would probably be a good idea so you had someone to watch your back, since it’s _dangerous_ to explore alone, just like you said. Not that you’re not capable, you really are! You were amazing today! I just – I was thinking that, you know, um. We could… y’know.”

Dusk stared at her for a second, not sure what to say _or_ if he was understanding her right. “Do you… are you asking what I think you’re asking?”

She shrugged. “I mean, it’d be pretty awkward to just… I was gonna say live at your house without you there, but that sounds like a massive overstep of boundaries so let’s forget that was a thought.”

“If that’s what you wanted, I wouldn’t mind it.” Dusk said. She looked like she didn’t believe him. “You’re my friend, and you need help. You’ve helped me a bunch already, and you didn’t have to do that.”

“It was the right thing to do,” she said, looking away.

“So’s this. I don’t mind you staying at the bluff, whether you form a team with me or not.” Her ears perked up. “But, y’know, if you _wanted_ to –”

“I do,” she said, “I’d love to form an exploration team with you, Dusk.”

.-.

“Pokémon Detected! Pokémon Detected!”

“Who’s footprint? Who’s footprint!”

A long pause.

“M-maybe…”

“UGH, not this again!”

On the grate, Dusk and his friend rolled their eyes.

“It’s made with guffawing garlic,” she said, referring to the grate.

“It’s _obviously_ made with chuckling chives,” Dusk replied.

“Vulpix and Riolu!” the louder of the voices shouted up at them, “What are you two doing back here?!”

“Sorry!” Dusk called down, “we had to go catch an outlaw!”

“But we’re back now!” His friend called, “and we’d like to form an exploration team!”

.-.

Chatot was not impressed with them. Normally, that would have Dusk wilting and stammering, wishing he’d never been born. But this time, with his friend right beside him, he was trying not to laugh.

Chatot paced around the room, lecturing them for ‘running off’ and ‘disrespect’ and ‘why should I let two unruly children join this prestigious institution?’ Every time his back was turned, his friend made a face, and each one was more ridiculous than the last. Chatot turned his back, and Dusk took his turn – he pulled his aura tassels to the front of his muzzle, hanging them like a weird moustache, and going crosseyed.

Someone snickered. It wasn’t Dusk or his friend, and it certainly wasn’t Chatot. The faces abruptly stopped.

Chatot sighed and turned around, to a giant wooden door. “I haven’t dissuaded you, have I?”

“Nope,” came the cheerful reply from Dusk’s friend. He saw how strained she was, though – just because she was better at hiding and covering it up than Dusk was, didn’t mean she was any less nervous.

“Very well. The Guildmaster seems to have found my lecture humourous, so,” he sighed. “You two. Under no circumstances will you be rude or unkind to our Guildmaster. Am I understood?”

“Absolutely,” Dusk said.

“Hundred percent,” his friend said. “We’re not animals.”

Chatot stared at her for a moment. Dusk shared her wince.

“Yes,” Chatot said slowly, and led them closer to the door. He knocked twice. “Guildmaster, it’s Chatot with two new recruits!”

There was a very excited _“Yay!!!”_

Chatot opened the door, and the pink balloon on the other side greeted them with a grin.

“Hiya!” Wigglytuff said, “You two want to join us? Hooray! Hooray! Do you have a Team Name?”

Dusk glanced at his friend. “What do you think?”

“I’m a fan of your last suggestion,” she said with a smile.

“Cool.” He turned back to Wigglytuff, “We’re Team Relic.”

“Hooray! What a fun name!” Wigglytuff said, dancing on the spot. “Now, true names!” Dusk saw his friend freeze, and he stifled a swear. “We need them for records! What are yours? If you don’t want to tell Chatot, he can leave, I know he’s kind of a meanie.”

Chatot’s feathers twitched, but he didn’t protest.

“Do we have to?” Dusk asked.

“I’m afraid so,” Chatot replied, “but they will not leave this room. If one of you is not aware of the other’s, you can also provide them separately.”

“In writing or verbally?”

“Whichever you prefer, many Pokémon do not have spelling for their true names.”

“Right,” Dusk glanced at his friend. That was about all he had for stalling. _Sorry._ “I’m, uh, Dusk. I can spell it out, if you have some ink?”

Chatot passed him some. “And you, miss?”

Dusk bit his lip. His friend licked her’s. “Uh,” she said.

The curtains in front of an open window abruptly fell off, causing the four of them to jump. Chatot sighed, and he and the Guildmaster went over to replace them.

“Wind’s picking up pretty bad tonight,” Dusk said lightly, “there’ll probably be a storm tonight. Lightning and stuff…” he glanced at his friend, “there was a storm the night we met, too. Remember?”

His friend gave a vague hum and watched the replaced curtains flap in the breeze before the window was closed.

“Our apologies,” Chatot said. He looked expectantly at Dusk’s friend.

“I’m not sure on the spelling,” she said, “but my name is Breeze.”

That was that; everything was registered, and Chatot filed them away. The Guildmaster offered them a box with badges, information, and a real, genuine treasure bag. Wigglytuff placed a box of items in front of them and said they could each pick one. Dusk picked a power band to wrap nicely around his wrist. His friend picked a nice pink persim band. After that, Chatot led them down a hall.

“Here at the Wigglytuff guild, we believe that community is a necessary part of creating strong exploration teams.” He said and stopped at the end of the hall. A small room with one cliffside window and two neatly-piled beds was in front of him. “While you are apprenticed here, you will live and work by our schedule. This will be your room. We will be serving dinner in a few minutes, but I recommend you take this time to return to your previous residence and retrieve anything you will need. We will leave you both a small plate. Please inform myself or the Guildmaster if you need anything.” He left back the way he’d came.

Dusk glanced at his friend. He tucked his own bag in the corner of the room. “So… Breeze, huh?”

His friend shrugged. “It was the first thing I thought of that didn’t feel, um, wrong.”

“It’s fine, you don’t need to explain yourself.” She gave him a thankful smile, “is it okay if I call you that? Or would you prefer vulpix? Or just nothing at all, because I’ve just been calling you ‘my friend’ and if you’d rather I keep doing that instead of forcing a name on you, I’m fine with that.”

“I’d _really rather_ no one called me Vulpix,” she said, and scowled at her paws. “But I don’t have a choice, do I?” She looked back up at him with a strained smile. “I like Breeze, though. You can call me that.”

“Cool,” Dusk said, and his friend – Breeze – smiled back.

There wasn’t much else to be done. They did as Chatot had instructed – they returned to the bluff, and filled their treasure bag with apples, rags, and anything else Dusk didn’t want to leave behind. They stashed the straw in the back caverns, where it’d be out of the rain and wind. Dusk checked his mail, too – they’d gotten 3000 poke from capturing Drowzee.

Dusk whistled and checked the pamphlet Chatot had given him. “The guild’s supposed to take a ninety-percent cut of all the money we earn for room and board, which will continue for up to two years after we’ve graduated.”

“Ew,” Breeze said, and placed the bag of coins in the treasure bag. “This doesn’t count, right?”

“It would’ve if we’d sent it back to the guild.”

“…What do you think are the chances that we can just keep sending the rewards here so they can’t take our money?”

“Pretty slim, unless we want to get in trouble.”

“Darn.”

They skipped out on dropping the money off at the bank – it was starting to rain by the time they made it back to town. They ran up the stairs as thunder rumbled in the distance, and finally reached the guild as it started to pour. Chatot was waiting for them, the gate to the guild already open. He closed it behind them and led them inside.

“I had a conversation with Spoink while you were gone,” he said. “He informed me of your team’s skill level. I also noticed this morning you ran off to capture an outlaw.”

Breeze pressed closer to the treasure bag, blocking the pocket with their money in it from Chatot’s reach. “We knew where he was going,” she said, “it was the right thing to do.”

“I agree,” Chatot replied, and gave them a smile. “I was just going to ask to see your badges, so I can give you your appropriate points for completing those missions.”

Dusk frowned. Breeze did as well, and they exchanged a confused glance. “But we weren’t part of the guild when we did those,” Dusk said.

“True,” Chatot said, “but Spoink was insistent you be properly rewarded for your help, and it was pointed out to me that you were fully intending to join this morning, and would have, had young Azurill not been in danger. Just this once, we will reward you for those jobs.”

In the end, they handed over their badges. Chatot said he’d return them in the morning and left them with a small portion each of roasted veggies. Dusk continued to flip through the pamphlet. Breeze continued to look over his shoulder, frown, and go back to making herself look busy.

“Did you want to read this?” He asked, “I think I’ve been hogging it. Um. Sorry.”

“It’s fine,” she said, and took a deep breath. “Dusk, I can’t read that.”

Dusk frowned. “Why not?”

“It’s just – I know it means something to _you,_ but to me it just looks like drawings of feet.” She pulled a face and Dusk frowned, lowering the pamphlet. “I don’t understand any of it.”

“Oh. Um.” He flipped it over in his hands, “want me to read it to you?”

She gave him a small smile. “I –”

“Psst! Hey!” They jumped, Breeze more so than Dusk, at the voice in the hall. Loudred – the same Loudred who’d taken Dusk’s honey – Sunflora, Bidoof, Corphish, Chimecho, Diglett, Dugtrio, and Croagunk were all crowded in the doorway. Bidoof, the one who’d spoken, waved at them. “You two joined, didn’t you, by golly?”

Dusk and Breeze exchanged a look. “Yes?” Breeze said.

“Ooh! Yay!” Sunflora clapped, “I’m so glad! New recruits!”

“New meat,” Croagunk said, and began to quietly chuckle manically. Breeze shuffled closer to Dusk.

“Don’t mind him,” Chimecho said, “and we’re _not_ here to overwhelm you two on your first night.” The other Pokémon gave her pouting looks. “We’re just here so Loudred can give you this!”

And Loudred pulled a jar of honey out of his treasure bag and rolled it over to Dusk.

“Oh,” he said, “thanks?”

“You’re welcome,” Loudred said, and the group shuffled away.

“Y-you should get some sleep,” Bidoof said, “morning cheers come early.” And he scurried off as well.

Breeze and Dusk exchanged a look. They both pulled faces – and then they fell on each other, snickering.

“I’d love it if you would read it to me,” Breeze said.

“Then I will,” Dusk replied, and turned back to the beginning. He sat beside his newfound friend, her fur entwined with his, as they read over the introduction pamphlet. She questioned the policies, and they made jokes about the ones they could. They finished their dinner, set the honey aside like it hadn’t been such a big deal the day before, and made their beds.

“Dusk?” Breeze asked. Lightning flashed outside their window right before they turned off the final light.

“Yeah?” He asked.

“Thanks,” she sat down in her bed, right beside him. Thunder crackled in the distance. “I don’t know what I would’ve done if I hadn’t met you.”

“Probably something clever,” Dusk said, “seen the future and saved Azurill all on your own.”

“I probably would’ve died.” Breeze said. The silence held, and she laid down on her bed. Dusk laid down on his own, right beside her. “I mean it. Thank you, Dusk. You’re the best friend and teammate a human-turned-Pokémon could ask for.”

Dusk rolled his eyes. “Yeah. Sure.”

“And I know this is really big for you,” Breeze continued, “and I know having me around probably isn’t helping –”

Dusk rolled onto his side. “Are you kidding? Breeze, I’d still be laying in bed in the bluff if it wasn’t for you! I would never have done anything if I hadn’t met you.”

“You could’ve come here sooner if I hadn’t said no,” she muttered.

“So? Then we would’ve made less money.” He reached out and placed a paw on her own. “I’m glad you’re here now, Breeze. Whoever you are or whatever you were, you’re my friend now. And I’m so happy I met you.”

Breeze smiled at him as lightning flashed, and the thunder echoed louder this time.

“Think there’ll be another human-turned-Pokémon on the beach tomorrow morning?” She asked.

Dusk scowled. “There’d _better_ not be.”

She snorted. Dusk grinned back.

“Goodnight,” she said, “Partner.”

“Goodnight,” Dusk replied, and pulled his paw back. “Partner.”

His stomach still twisted with anxiety, and Dusk could feel his heart pounding in his chest just as well. The little voice in the back of his mind still screamed about how he wasn’t good enough for this, and how he’d let everyone down, but – but he had Breeze with him. Breeze, who had jokes and future vision, and snorted when she laughed. Who ate way too fast. Who could put on a smile and be polite whenever he needed her to. Who watched his back, and helped him fight, and who had got him to where he was here, now.

He was still stressed, and he was still scared. But the anxiety didn’t seem as overwhelming now that he had someone like Breeze.

He fell asleep beside his teammate, his friend, and his partner as the thunder, lightning, and wind drowned the outside world out.

.-.

He darted from grove to grove of bushes across the forest path, his form hidden even though his footprints were not. True, they’d likely be washed away in a few breaths by the shifting dungeon and wild weather, but in case they didn’t… in case they stayed…

She was an expert tracker. If she saw his footprints, then she’d know. She’d find him, and it’d all be okay.

But for now, he had to keep moving.

The end of the dungeon came quickly, and through the harsh wind and rain he crept forwards. “Do my eyes deceive me? Could it be?” He leaned against the stone surrounding its lake, squinting through the water in his eyes. “Yes, it is!” He boosted himself onto the stone to get a better look at the small, blue gear.

A voice carried from the dungeon behind him. “Grovyle!”

He lost his balance and fell face-first into the lake.

Grovyle picked himself up and whipped around. It wasn’t the right voice – it wasn’t _her._ It was those Pokémon who’d pulled him out of the storm when he first arrived.

When he first arrived alone.

The wind and the rain whipped the leaves on the trees around, and the ground vibrated with every crack of thunder. It was unlike anything he had ever seen before – unlike anything _any_ of them had ever seen before. It was amazing. It was beautiful.

It felt hollow, to be looking at it alone.

Grovyle shook his head and repositioned himself, securing the waterproof but well-worn treasure bag at his side. It was still too long and bumped against his knees – it was adjusted for his partner, and as much as he missed her, the last thing Grovyle wanted was to hear her complain about how he’d ‘messed up her system.’

“Here we go Breanna,” he whispered, and launched himself towards the gear. One clawed hand wrapped around it, the spokes digging into his palm, and the other shattered an escape orb.

He hit the ground back outside the dungeon and rolled back to his feet. The wind and rain blasted his eyes as he stumbled forwards, away from Treeshroud Forest.

“One down, four to go,” he whispered, and kept the Time Gear in a tight fist as he dropped the orb shards behind him – more so-called breadcrumbs for his best friend and teammate to follow. “We’re in it now, Breanna.” He picked up the pace, and launched himself into the treetops.

And Grovyle ran, the Time Gear in hand, without his partner at his heels.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Heya! Thanks for reading everyone, and I hope you enjoyed this fic as much as I enjoyed writing it! There were a couple things this story was spawned from, so I'm going to go over them here in case anyone was curious!
> 
> So: every time I play explorers, I pick the weird options for the first two dialogue prompts. I tell my partner I can't help find the relic fragment because I'm an ex-human with no memory until they shout at me 'Human, ghost, it doesn't matter! You can still help!' and I accuse them of trying to talk me into forming a team with them. I just like the extra bits of dialogue honestly. I was also REALLY into PMD fics back in 2012ish, where rewriting the game was incredibly common. I even tried to write some, but the problem was that they all began exactly the same. And often, the authors would get bored and quit before the guild even went on their expedition. Even with new characters, the exact same plot points get boring. I knew from the moment I started Backfire that Team Relic's beginning would not be exactly the same as the game's.
> 
> When I was replaying the game, I made the following notes about the Drowzee Fight, because story-wise it was very nice.  
> Drowzee fight -  
> first two attacks miss. Drowzee disables/paralyzes hero and partner. Knocks hero out with hypnosis. Hits partner twice (confusion), bringing them down to the red – partner gets two hits in with super effective move. Hero wakes up and finishes the fight with final super effective move.  
> I wanted to use that fight for something, and then I came up with the story's summery. There is a very good chance I was listening to 'I Say No' from the UK production of Heathers at the time, which despite having nothing to do with this fic, is a very good song.
> 
> Beyond that, it was little things: my friend pointed out that Dusk had no lines in early Backfire chapters, so I wanted to build his character. I already knew he had anxiety, because why write a fic if you don't rub your own mental illnesses onto your characters? Also it just worked really well for him. And I wanted to do some worldbuilding, develop the pokemon society a bit more! I love worldbuilding so much.
> 
> All in all, this was super fun to write and I'm pretty proud of it! Le me know what y'all think, and if you'd be interested in seeing more things like this! <3


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